Obesity represents the most prevalent of body weight disorders, and it is the most important nutritional disorder in the western world, with estimates of its prevalence ranging from 30% to 50% within the middle-aged population. Other body weight disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa which together affect approximately 0.2% of the female population of the western world, also pose serious health threats. Further, such disorders as anorexia and cachexia (wasting) are also prominent features of other diseases such as cancer, cystic fibrosis, and AIDS.
Obesity, defined as an excess of body fat relative to lean body mass, also contributes to other diseases. For example, this disorder is responsible for increased incidences of diseases such as coronary artery disease, stroke, and diabetes. (See, e.g., Nishina, P. M. et al., 1994, Metab. 43:554-558.) Obesity is not merely a behavioral problem, i.e., the result of voluntary hyperphagia. Rather, the differential body composition observed between obese and normal subjects results from differences in both metabolism and neurologic/metabolic interactions. These differences seem to be, to some extent, due to differences in gene expression, and/or level of gene products or activity (Friedman, J. M. et al., 1991, Mammalian Gene 1:130-144).
The epidemiology of obesity strongly shows that the disorder exhibits inherited characteristics (Stunkard, 1990, N. Eng. J. Med. 322:1483). Moll et al. have reported that, in many populations, obesity seems to be controlled by a few genetic loci (Moll et al. 1991, Am. J. Hum. Gen. 49:1243). In addition, human twin studies strongly suggest a substantial genetic basis in the control of body weight, with estimates of heritability of 80-90% (Simopoulos, A. P. & Childs B., eds., 1989, in "Genetic Variation and Nutrition in Obesity", World Review of Nutrition and Diabetes 63, S. Karger, Basel, Switzerland; Borjeson, M., 1976, Acta. Paediatr. Scand. 65:279-287).
Studies of non-obese persons who deliberately attempted to gain weight by systematically over-eating were found to be more resistant to such weight gain and able to maintain an elevated weight only by very high caloric intake. In contrast, spontaneously obese individuals are able to maintain their status with normal or only moderately elevated caloric intake. In addition, it is a commonplace experience in animal husbandry that different strains of swine, cattle, etc., have different predispositions to obesity. Studies of the genetics of human obesity and of models of animal obesity demonstrate that obesity results from complex defective regulation of both food intake, food induced energy expenditure and of the balance between lipid and lean body anabolism.
There are a number of genetic diseases in man and other species which feature obesity among their more prominent symptoms, along with, frequently, dysmorphic features and mental retardation. For example, Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) affects approximately 1 in 20,000 live births, and involves poor neonatal muscle tone, facial and genital deformities, and generally obesity.
In addition to PWS, many other pleiotropic syndromes which include obesity as a symptom have been characterized. These syndromes are more genetically straightforward, and appear to involve autosomal recessive alleles. The diseases, which include, among others, Ahlstroem, Carpenter, Bardet-Biedl, Cohen, and Morgagni-Stewart-Monel Syndromes.
A number of models exist for the study of obesity (see, e.g., Bray, G. A., 1992, Prog. Brain Res. 93:333-341, and Bray, G. A., 1989, Amer. J. Clin. Nutr. 5:891-902). For example, animals having mutations which lead to syndromes that include obesity symptoms have been identified, and attempts have been made to utilize such animals as models for the study of obesity. The best studied animal models, to date, for genetic obesity are mice models. For reviews, see e.g., Friedman, J. M. et al., 1991, Mamm. Gen. 1:130-144; Friedman, J. M. and Liebel, R. L., 1992, Cell 69:217-220.)
Studies utilizing mice have confirmed that obesity is a very complex trait with a high degree of heritability. Mutations at a number of loci have been identified which lead to obese phenotypes. These include the autosomal recessive mutations obese (ob), diabetes (db), fat (fat) and tubby (tub). In addition, the autosomal dominant mutations Yellow at the agouti locus and Adipose (Ad) have been shown to contribute to an obese phenotype.
The ob and db mutations are on chromosomes 6 and 4, respectively, but lead to a complex, clinically similar phenotype of obesity, evident starting at about one month of age, which includes hyperphagia, severe abnormalities in glucose and insulin metabolism, very poor thermoregulation and non-shivering thermogenesis, and extreme torpor and underdevelopment of the lean body mass. This complex phenotype has made it difficult to identify the primary defect attributable to the mutations (Bray G. A., et al., 1989 Amer. J. Clin. Nutr. 5:891-902).
Using molecular and classical genetic markers, the db gene has been mapped to midchromosome 4 (Friedman et al., 1991, Mamm. Gen. 1:130-144). The mutation maps to a region of the mouse genome that is syntonic with human, suggesting that, if there is a human homolog of db, it is likely to map to human chromosome 1p.
The ob gene and its human homologue have recently been cloned (Zhang, Y. et al., 1994, Nature 372:425-432). The gene appears to produce a 4.5 kb adipose tissue messenger RNA which contains a 167 amino acid open reading frame. The predicted amino acid sequence of the ob gene product indicates that it is a secreted protein and may, therefore, play a role as part of a signalling pathway from adipose tissue which may serve to regulate some aspect of body fat deposition. Further, recent studies have shown that recombinant Ob protein, also known as leptin, when exogenously administered, can at least partially correct the obesity-related phenotype exhibited by ob mice (Pelleymounter, M. A. et al., 1995, Science 269:540-543; Halalas, J. L. et al., 1995, Science 269:543-546; Campfield, L. A. et al., 1995, Science 269:546-549). Recent studies have suggested that obese humans and rodents (other than ob/ob ice) are not defective in their ability to produce ob mRNA or protein, and generally produce higher levels than lean individuals (Maffei et al., 1995, Nature Med. 1 (11):1155-1161; Considine et al., 1995, J. Clin. Invest. 95(6):2986-2988; Lohnqvist et al., 1995, Nature Med. 1:950-953; Hamilton et al., 1995, Nature Med. 1:953-956). These data suggest that resistance to normal or elevated levels of ob may be more important than inadequate Ob production in human obesity. However, the receptor for the ob gene product, thought to be expressed in the hypothalamus, remains elusive.
Homozygous mutations at either the fat or tub loci cause obesity which develops more slowly than that observed in ob and db mice (Coleman, D. L., and Eicher, E. M., 1990, J. Heredity 81:424-427), with tub obesity developing slower than that observed in fat animals. This feature of the tub obese phenotype makes the development of tub obese phenotype closest in resemblance to the manner in which obesity develops in humans. Even so, however, the obese phenotype within such animals can be characterized as massive in that animals eventually attain body weights which are nearly two times the average weight seen in normal mice.
The fat mutation has been mapped to mouse chromosome 8, while the tub mutation has been mapped to mouse chromosome 7. According to Naggert et al., the fat mutation has recently been identified (Naggert, J. K., et al., 1995, Nature Genetics 10:135-141). Specifically, the fat mutation appears to be a mutation within the Cpe locus, which encodes the carboxypeptidase (Cpe) E protein. Cpe is an exopeptidase involved in the processing of prohormones, including proinsulin.
The dominant Yellow mutation at the agouti locus, causes a pleiotropic syndrome which causes moderate adult onset obesity, a yellow coat color, and a high incidence of tumor formation (Herberg, L. and Coleman, D. L., 1977, Metabolism 26:59), and an abnormal anatomic distribution of body fat (Coleman, D. L., 1978, Diabetologia 14:141-148). This mutation may represent the only known example of a pleiotropic mutation that causes an increase, rather than a decrease, in body size. The mutation causes the widespread expression of a protein which is normally seen only in neonatal skin (Michaud, E. J. et al., 1994, Genes Devel. 8:1463-1472).
Other animal models include fa/fa (fatty) rats, which bear many similarities to the ob/ob and db/db mice, discussed above. One difference is that, while fa/fa rats are very sensitive to cold, their capacity for non-shivering thermogenesis is normal. Torpor seems to play a larger part in the maintenance of obesity in fa/fa rats than in the mice mutants. In addition, inbred mouse strains such as NZO mice and Japanese KK mice are moderately obese. Certain hybrid mice, such as the Wellesley mouse, become spontaneously fat. Further, several desert rodents, such as the spiny mouse, do not become obese in their natural habitats, but do become so when fed on standard laboratory feed.
Animals which have been used as models for obesity have also been developed via physical or pharmacological methods. For example, bilateral lesions in the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) and ventrolateral hypothalamus (VLH) in the rat are associated, respectively, with hyperphagia and gross obesity and with aphagia, cachexia and anorexia. Further, it has been demonstrated that feeding monosodium-glutamate (MSG) or gold thioglucose to newborn mice also results in an obesity syndrome.
Each of the rodent obesity models is accompanied by alterations in carbohydrate metabolism resembling those in Type II diabetes in man. For example, from both ob and db, congenic C57BL/KS mice develop a severe diabetes with ultimate .beta. cell necrosis and islet atrophy, resulting in a relative insulinopenia, while congenic C57BL/6J ob and db mice develop a transient insulin-resistant diabetes that is eventually compensated by .beta. cell hypertrophy resembling human Type II diabetes.
With respect to ob and db mice, the phenotype of these mice resembles human obesity in ways other than the development of diabetes, in that the mutant mice eat more and expend less energy than do lean controls (as do obese humans). This phenotype is also quite similar to that seen in animals with lesions of the ventromedial hypothalamus, which suggests that both mutations may interfere with the ability to properly integrate or respond to nutritional information within the central nervous system. Support for this hypothesis comes from the results of parabiosis experiments (Coleman, D. L. 1973, Diabetologica 9:294-298) that suggest ob mice are deficient in a circulating satiety factor and that db mice are resistant to the effects of the ob factor. These experiments have led to the conclusion that obesity in these mutant mice may result from different defects in an afferent loop and/or integrative center of the postulated feedback mechanism that controls body composition.
In summary, therefore, obesity, which poses a major, worldwide health problem, represents a complex, highly heritable trait. Given the severity, prevalence and potential heterogeneity of such disorders, there exists a great need for the identification of those genes and gene products that participate in the control of body weight.
It is an objective of the invention to provide modulators of body weight, to provide methods for diagnosis of body weight disorders, to provide therapy for such disorders and to provide an assay system for the screening of substances which can be used to control body weight.